Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power Blu-ray Movie Review

Please, God, let someone kill this franchise...

Hm. Well. Wow. Ooph. That just happened. So... where to begin? Somewhere else preferably, anywhere really, so long as it isn't anywhere near The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power; a direct-to-video mess that doesn't borrow, but damn near plagiarizes other films. Better films. Beloved films. It goes beyond a nod or reference. At one point, it lifts the bag/idol swap sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark. All well and good. It's short, cute and fun. A nod. But when Quest for Power reaches its endgame, it swipes the entire climax from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (Spoiler alert: A father lies dying, leaving an adventurer with little choice but to retrieve a powerful relic from a deadly chamber of ancient traps, so the dying man can be healed of his mortal wound. To obtain the relic, the adventurer must face a series of challenges which bear a striking resemblance to the three trials Dr. Jones faces to lay his mitts on the Holy Grail. The villain follows the adventurer, though, and finds that handling the relic is, ahem, trickier than he suspected. I'm guessing you can guess what comes next. Anyone who's seen The Last Crusade should. The similarities are uncanny.) Notice the difference? This isn't a reference, and at best stretches the definition of homage to its breaking point. This is the film's endgame, and it plays, almost beat for beat, like Indy's third outing. And that isn't the only scene cribbed. '80s and '90s fantasy cinema has been shamelessly pillaged and plundered. Quest for Power culls everything from Conan the Barbarian and its sequel to Beastmaster, Dragonslayer, Willow, The Princess Bride, Monty Python... the list goes on and on.

Combine that with everything you'd expect from the fourth entry in a spin-off from the flailing Mummy series -- cringe-worthy performances, cringier dialogue, a bloated story, a paper-thin script, bizarre (and bizarrely short) appearances from the likes of Rutger Hauer, Michael Bien and Lou Ferrigno, SyFy Movie of the Week production values, cheese heaped atop camp, even cheesier FX, endless jokes and eye-rolling one-liners, generic fantasy music, stocky visuals and choppy action, just to name a few issues. Bottom line, if you absolutely adore SyFy's on-the-cheap B-movies, if you laugh and enjoy every awful minute of every awful misfire, you might, might find something to enjoy in The Scorpion King 4: The Quest for Power. If so, my hat's off to you. You are a glutton for cinematic punishment and I refuse to judge your sadomasochistic viewing pleasures. I hope someone enjoys this junk, otherwise it's a bigger waste of budget than I already think.

The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Scorpion King 4: The Quest for Power certainly looks the low budget part, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that isn't about to impress anyone. There isn't much in the way of technical issues, other than some minor noise, crush and artifacting, all of which is easy to overlook. But darker, torch-lit or nighttime scenes -- and there are a lot -- are muddy, murky and lack the detail on display when the sun is up. Colors are merely serviceable (nicely saturated skintones being the highlight of the image), black levels are dingy and muted, delineation is problematic, and clarity is inconsistent. Again, this is the film as it was shot, so I can't complain too much. But there's nothing remarkable about the presentation, nor does it amount to a saving grace. It's good. Don't misunderstand. Great, though? Not quite.

The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Quest for Power's sound design isn't much better, but like the disc's video presentation, Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track isn't the culprit. Voices are clean and clear, even if they take too much priority over the rest of the soundscape, and rarely sound grounded in the world of the sequel or balanced properly within the soundfield. The result is an oft-times front-heavy experience, though some playful rear speaker activity mixes it up pretty well. LFE output is passable too, giving action scenes some much-needed weight and heft, but it all still registers as rather flat and generic. Does any of it amount to a glaring problem? Only at the filmmaking level. Universal's lossless track does the best it can with what it's given.

The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Director Mike Elliott, Victor Webster, Barry Bostwick, Ellen Hollman and Will Kemp discuss the film while watching it for the first time. Topics of discussion among the lively band of good sports include Quest for Power's title change, casting real fighters as fictional warriors, working with Lou Ferrigno (cue Hulk jokes), choreographing and shooting the fight scenes, going on location for key scenes, the "man-kettle", and more than you could over hope to learn about. The commentary is actually fairly entertaining, despite copious compliments and back-patting, but I never got the impression that anyone was under the delusion that they were making a summer blockbuster. While happy with the end result, the joking, poking and good-natured picking suggests the cast and director know exactly what sort of film they were making, and embraced it rather than letting it get the best of them. Much better than the film itself, the commentary is akin to a group of friends laughing and chatting their way through a backyard home movie.
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 15 minutes): Fourteen deleted and extended scenes, among them "Spear Guards," "Rise of Dragon," "Mathayus Leaves on Camel," "Sorrell Dying," "King Training Fight," "Yannick Considers Peace," "Drazen Confronts Yannick," "Escape: Extended," "Drazen to Crowd: Extended," "Heroes Run-In with Guards," "Horseback Talk After Escape," "Drazen Slaps Gorak," "Valina and Roland Walk & Talk" and "Mathayus and Sorrell Walk & Talk."
• The Making of Scorpion King 4 (HD, 18 minutes): A three-part production featurette. Segments include "A Brand New World," "Great Chemistry" and "Real Fighters, Fake Punches."
• Gag Reel (HD, 6 minutes): Laugh it up with the cast and crew.

The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Victor Webster, Ellen Holman, Barry Bostwick and Will Kemp make the most of a bad, bad situation, and I actually came away from The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power liking all four quite a bit. I hated their characters, the dialogue, the action, the cheese and the camp, but the lead actors hold their heads high and have what appears to be fun doing it. Otherwise, there's nothing here to like and even less to enjoy. If you dig low-budget SyFy-esque fare, you might find something worth finding. Good luck, though. Walking away from Quest for Power with a smile isn't going to be easy. Universal's Blu-ray release is at least decent, with a serviceable AV presentation and a decent lineup of special features. None of it makes the movie go down more smoothly, but it's something.